176 



NA TURE 



[Dec. 31, 1874 



Unlike the great Academies of the Continent, the Royal 

 Society has never published an almanack or aunuaire containing 

 information upon its privileges, duties, constitution, and manage- 

 ment. Particulars on these points are for the most part now 

 accessible to the Fellows only by direct inquiry, or through tha 

 Councd Minutes ; and these, to non-resident Fellows, are prac- 

 tically inaccessible. In my own case, though I have long been 

 a resident Fellow and had the honour of serving on your 

 Councils for not a few years, it was not until I was placed in 

 the position I now hold that I became aware of the number and 

 magnitude of the Society's duties, or of the responsibility these 

 impose on your officers. 



It is upwards of a quarter of a century since an account of 

 the foundations that then existed and the work the Society then 

 carried on was published in Weld's valuable but too diffuse 

 "History of the Royal Society. " These have all been greatly 

 modified or extended since that period ; and many others have 

 been added to them ; so that the time has now arrived when a 

 statement of the large funds applicable to scientific research 

 which the Society distributes, the conditions under which these 

 are to be applied for, and other particulars, might with ad- 

 vantage be published in a summary form and distributed to the 

 Fellows annually. 



FiiuDue. — Alter the financial statement made by the auditors, 

 you will, I am sure, conclude that there is no cause for appre- 

 hension in respect of the Society's funds or income ; and when 

 to this I add that the expenses of removal from the old house, 

 including new furniture, amount to 1,300/., and that the volume 

 of Transactions for the presest year will contain eighty-six 

 plates, the largest number hitherto executed at the Society's cost 

 within the same period, you will also conclude that there is no 

 want of means for providing illustrations to papers communi- 

 cated to us for publication. 



The landed property of the Society, as stated in the printed 

 balance-sheet now before you, consists of an estate at Acton, in 

 tile neighbourhood of London, and an estate at Mablethorpe, 

 Lincolnshiie, each yieldmg a good rental. The Acton estate, 

 at prtsent on lease to an agricultural tenant, is planned to be let 

 as building land, for which it is favourably situate, and will thus 

 become increasingly valuable. 



The subject of the tenure under which the Society holds the 

 apaitments we now occupy was brought up on a question of 

 ii.surance. That question has been satisfactorily settled by 

 reference to the Treasury ; but it may still be worth while 

 briefly to state the facts which the Council considered as 

 fumishing valid grounds for appealing against the requirement 

 to insure, and for at tlie same time requesting an assurance that 

 the permanence of our tenure is in no way weakened by our 

 removal to this building. These are : that when the apart- 

 ments in Somerset House were originally assigned to the So- 

 ciety by command of George III., they were granted ''during 

 the pleasure of the Crown, without payment of rent or any other 

 pecuniary consideration whatever ; " that the Society was not 

 required to insure either in .Somerset House or old Burlington 

 House ; that when the .Society removed at the request of the 

 Government from Somerset House and accepted temporary 

 accommodation in Burlington House, it was under the written 

 assurance of tlie Secretary of the Treasury, addressed to the 

 President of the Society, that the cliims of the Society to 

 "permanent accommodation should not be thereby in any 

 respect weakened ; " that in the debates on the estimates in 

 1857, the Secretary of the Treasury stated, in his place in 

 Parliament, that " the Society could not be turned out of 

 Somerset House without its own consent," and that " it was 

 entitled to rooms by royal grant." 



To this appeal the Lorus Commissioners returned a satisfac- 

 tory answer ; and their letter, dated October 27th last, assures 

 us "that there is no intention on the part of the Treasury to 

 alter the terms on which the Royal Society holds its appoint- 

 ments under the Crown ; the conditions of the Society's tenure 

 will therefore be the same as those on wliich it occupied rooms 

 in Somerset House, and was subsequently transferred to Bur- 

 lington House." 



While feeling it my duty to lay these details before you, \ 

 must accompany them with the assurance that nothing has 

 occurred during this correspondence to disturb ihe unbroken 

 harmony that has existed between her Majesty's Government 

 and the Royal Society, ever since our occupation of apartments 

 under favour of the Crown. 



On every occasion of change of quarters the Society has 



received abundant proofs of the regard shown by the Govern- 

 ment for its position, requirements, and continued prosperity ; 

 and there is, I am sure, every disposition on the part of the 

 Government to recognise the fact that the privileges conferred 

 on the Society are fully reciprocated by the multifarious aid and 

 advice fumi^hed by your Council in matters of the greatest im- 

 portance to the well-being of the State. 



The practice of electing Fellows of the so-called privileged 

 class whose qualifications were limited to accident of lineage or 

 political status, has been viewed with grave dissatisfaction by 

 many, ever since the election of ordinary Fellows was limited to 

 fifteen. The Council has in consequence felt it to be its duty to 

 give most careful attention to the subject, which it referred to a 

 committee, whose report ,has been adopted and embodied in a 

 by-law. 



The privileged class consisted, as you are aware, of certain 

 royal personages, peers of the realm, and Privy Councillors 

 (Statutes, Sect. iv. cap. i); and they were balloted for at any 

 meeting of the Society, after a week's notice on the part of any 

 Fellow, without a suspended certificate, or other form whatever. 



The committee reported that it was desirable to reta.n the 

 power of electing, as a "privileged class," persons who, while 

 precluded by public duties or otherwise from meeting the 

 scientific requirements customary in the case of ordinary Fellows, 

 possessed the power and had shown t!ie wish to forward the 

 ends of the .Society, and recommended that the class should be 

 limited to the princes of the blood royal and members of her 

 Majesty's Privy Council. And with regard to the method of 

 election, they recommended that a prince of the blood royal 

 might be publicly proposed at any ordinary meeting, and 

 balloted for at the next ; that, with regard to a member of her 

 Majesty's Privy Council, he might be proposed at any ordinary 

 meeting by means of a certificate prepared in accordance with 

 chap. 1. Sect. iii. of the Statutes, membership of the Privy Council 

 being the only qualification stated — the certificate being, with the 

 Society's permission, suspended in the meeting-room till the 

 day of election, which should fall on the third ordinary meeting 

 after suspension. 



Having regard to the eminent services to the .State which 

 have been rendered by Privy Councillors, and to the tact that all 

 peers who do render such services are habitually enrolled on the 

 list of Privy Councillors, it was believed by the Council that the 

 effect of thus limiting the privileged class would be that the 

 doors of the Society would remain open to all such peers as 

 desire and deserve admission, but who have not the ordinary 

 qualifications for fellowship ;. while all such peers as might ap- 

 pear with claims which compete with those of ordinary can- 

 didates would prefer owing the fellowship to their qualifications 

 rather than to their birth. 



The Council hopes that by this means the so-called privileged 

 class will be reinforced, and that statesmen who may have con- 

 sidered themselves ineligible through want of purely scientific 

 qualifications, or who have hesitated to offer themselves from the 

 fear of interfering with the scientific claims of others, will in 

 future come forward and recruit our ranks. 



A passing notice of the manner of proposing candidates for 

 the ordinary class of fellowship may not be out of place. 

 Theoretically this is done by a Fellow who is supposed to be a 

 friend of the candidate, is versed in the science on which his 

 claims are founded, and is satisfied of his fitness in all respects 

 for fellowship. It is most desirable that the Fellow who pro- 

 poses a candidate should take upon himself the whole duty and 

 responsibility of preparing the certificate, should sign it first, 

 and himself procure the signatures of other Fellows in whose 

 judgment of the candidate's qualifications the Council and the 

 Society may place implicit confidence. It is unsatisfactory to 

 see attached to a candidate's certificate an ill-considered list of 

 signatures, whether given from personal or from general know- 

 ledge ; and the happily rare practice of soliciting signatures 

 and support, directly or indirectly, by the candidate himself, 

 cannot be too strongly deprecated. For obvious reasons the 

 president, officers, and other members of the Council have 

 hitherto during their periods of office abstained from proposing 

 a candidate of the ordinary class, or from signing his certificate, 

 but have not withdrawn their signatures from certificates sent in 

 before they took office. The Council and officers will probably 

 not feel the same objection to signing the certificates of candi- 

 dates of the privileged class, as these will nut be selected for 

 ballot by the Council, but will be elected by the Society at 

 large at their ordinary meetings. 



